Yeah a lot of people as part of grief keep something of the person who is gone and do sniff it. It is also recommended if you are leaving your pets somewhere away from home to put something with their scent on it and yours to comfort them.

A number of women who are married to men who are gone for long periods of time due to work, like long haul truckers, will keep a shirt around and even sleep with it. It is weird, but in the range of normal.

Her dad was dead IIRC.

I suppose. I don't have any of my dad's clothes but I do have some of his old books. The big man was a heavy smoker, twas what killed him in the end, and all the books we got from his house smell strongly of baccy - even after 5/6 years. I'll sometimes savour the aroma and remember.

I'm told that it helps a lot if you say a person's name three times upon immediately meeting them.
"Dad, dad, dad!"
At least I can almost imagine that's how it went. I'm thinking, yes, for sure, I was smart enough to count to three. But there's the talking thing, and as babies are mostly nearsighted, only seeing a foot clearly, near as I remember I only developed an early fascination with feet.

Some pipe tobacco aroma takes me back to very fond childhood memories of family gatherings with my parent, sisters and paternal Dutch grandparents ..stories, piano accordion, classical music, my two sisters and I tucked up on a really high old bed falling asleep listening to the grownups' conversation, laughter, arguing ...

I've had a similar experience in a northern Victorian motel this week, where the shower has a faint, earthy river water smell that takes me back to childhood visits to my grandparents' home on the Murray River

__________________spruce: apart from the weird tuft of white hair she's still a beautiful person

I've had a similar experience in a northern Victorian motel this week, where the shower has a faint, earthy river water smell that takes me back to childhood visits to my grandparents' home on the Murray River

even you just saying this reminds me of visiting my mom's home town, Fort Frances. The description is enough actually to know what that smell is..